Wednesday, October 1, 2008

recipe: Double-Chocolate Bacon Cookies

I like baking; it's edible chemistry. I can do chemistry. Cooking terrifies me 'cause it's all unregimented in ways that I never learned how to troubleshoot, but I find baking easy -- medatative, even. (Unless things are going badly and I can't figure out why, in which case I have occasionally tried to behead innocent bystanders with pie plates.) And I like feeding people, especially with things they've maybe never tried before or wouldn't bother making for themselves. So what exactly does a grammar monkey bake for a triple-bachelor birthday/house party/post-Piratepalooza party/all-around sin fest?

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips6 strips of smoky bacon (a little less than 1 pound uncooked; it should be ~1/2 c. once chopped)

METHOD

1) Set out your butter and egg to allow them to approach room temperature.

2) Cook off the bacon -- err on the side of extra-crispy, but don't burn it all to hell. Drain on paper towels and allow to cool completely, then run it through a food processor (or y'know a knife) until it's basically largish bacon bits. Set the bits on a paper towel to drain (again).

3) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

4) In large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy -- a couple minutes on medium with an electric mixer should do it.

5) Beat in the eggs, vanilla, and any booze you're using until well incorporated -- another minute or so with an electric mixer on medium.

6) Sift or whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt), and then stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture until the dough is smooth -- it'll be a bit sticky.

9) Bake for 8 to 10 minutes -- the cookies should be crisp around the edges but still soft in the middle. Allow to cool slightly on the sheet before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

NOTES

The amount of bacon you're gonna wanna use will depend on the thickness of slices and how much you wanna freak people out. I'd recommend buying a thicker-cut, higher quality bacon (I like Wright's) so that the bacon flavor really comes through without these feeling like meatcookies.

If the dough is too wet/runny/sticky to easily get onto the baking sheet after step 6, you can add maybe a tablespoon of flour and/or cover the bowl and set it in the fridge for ~10 minutes. If you wanted to, you could leave the dough in the fridge for a couple hours and come back later for the baking part.

You should probably warn people a lot that there's bacon in them there cookies -- I made a sign involving cartoon bacon holding hands with cartoon chocolate.

10 comments:

The cookies were delicious! Of course, I eat Vosges' bacon chocolate bars so I guess I didn't find it as weird as some folks might. But these cookies are perfect for anyone who loves a combination of sweet & salty flavors.

I've been meaning to do a car bomb-inspired dessert for a couple years now... I think what I wanna do is maybe like a chocolate-Guinness cookie with an Irish cream-whisky frosting. OR with Irish cream white chocolate chips and a whisky glaze.

I just made these cookies, and they are really amazing. I used a broken up Trader Joe 72% Dark Swiss chocolate bar instead of choc chips... used the TJ bacon too. When I took the cookies out of the oven I sprinkled some kosher salt on top. Incredible. The only thing is that somehow the wonderful big greasy bacon taste I'm used to doesn't come out, I guess because of the baking process. Instead the bits taste like chewy salty somethings. I might make them without the bacon next time (and eat the bacon on the side!). Thank you so much for the great recipe!

the grammar monkey is

I laugh a lot, haven't been asked to wear a foam rubber lobster suit at a rheumatology convention in nearly five years, and think the world would be radder if I could use plasma grenades to end unpleasant conversations.